Date Confirmed 1892

The second teawaker which has come to my attention is a gas model patented in 1892 by John Thomas Hardman, of 8 Granville Street, Clerk, and James Alfred Greenhalgh, of 5 Granville Street, Tinman, both in Regent Road, Salford, in the County of Lancaster. In the Patent application they wrote:

"The object of this invention is primarily to enable a person who requires to attend work or other business, at any early hour in the morning to have a cup of tea or the like prepared without attendance and ready for consumption previous to departure, but the same apparatus may be employed for domestic purposes at other times."

Barry Wilkinson, Editor of Historic Gas Times, from Wetherby, West Yorkshire writes:

"James Alfred Greenhalgh, a 26-year-old gas inspector from Salford, took out patent No 15,604 in 1893 for a gas-fired clock-teamaker.

"He described the device, which resembled a large carriage clock, as "an improved means of boiling water and obtaining an infusion of tea or other beverage at any pre-arranged time without the aid of attendant". The gas valve was opened by a mechanical link to the integral alarm clock.

"Greenhalgh appears to have had a sponsor, since he could not afford the fee for the patent application. But, sadly, the market was not ready for the device and he did not prosper from his invention. However, they were made at the rate of one a week and given away as prizes in a draw at Howarth's Mill in Salford.

"This idea was just one of a range of other gas-heated or gas-powered inventions in the early 1900s, ranging from the gas wireless set, the scintillating melodic gas gramophone, the silent gas vacuum cleaner and a gas-powered church organ."